After rallying Sunday for a 41-27 win against the Browns, the Giants know what’s up next: a rematch of last year’s NFC Championship Game. And the 49ers haven’t just been winning lately, they’ve been winning big: a 34-0 shutout of the Jets, followed by a 45-3 beatdown of the Bills.

“You see it, but we scored 41 points, too,” center David Baas said Monday. “We’re not going to (say), ‘Whoa,’ sit back there and think they’re the almighty, you know what I mean? We’re prepared for them. We know we have a good team, too. We know it’s going to be a battle, and we’ve just got to get prepared this week, have a good week of practice.”

The 49ers might not be the almighty, but there’s no doubt what awaits the Giants in
San Francisco: a tough, physical game between two teams that have the talent to be the best of the NFC again this season.

The Giants came out on top in their last meeting, a 20-17 victory that earned them a trip to Super Bowl XLVI. Will the 49ers use that as motivation this week, to get even with the team that kept them out of the Super Bowl?

“Honestly, I don’t care what they think,” said Baas, who played in San Francisco from 2005-2010.

“It could be, they could say anything they want. Get redemption for anything, whatever. It’s important to us to go out there and get the win, that’s all we’re focusing on. I don’t care what they think. It’s about what we do.”

Baas and his fellow offensive linemen know what they have to do: pick up where
they left off in Sunday’s win, when they paved the way for Ahmad Bradshaw’s 200-yard rushing performance and kept Eli Manning from getting sacked for the second straight game.

Asked if it is good timing to have gotten the running game going before this physical matchup with the 49ers, Coughlin said simply, “very well said.”

Right guard Chris Snee said “it would be a shame” not to carry Sunday’s performance forward. But he admitted it will be “much tougher sledding” against the stout 49ers defense.

San Francisco’s defense ranks second in the league in yards allowed, and is giving up just 81.4 yards per game on the ground. Last year, the 49ers hit Manning 12 times in the NFC Championship Game, and sacked him six times.

“One week, it may be a bigger challenge, but you want to have that same goal in mind to keep him clean, to be able to provide holes for Ahmad,” Baas said. “It can’t be up and down all the time. We need to consistently build on good things like last game. So, like I said, it’s going to be a challenge, but I don’t think anybody here is going to back away from it.”

The Giants see a 49ers team they say may be better, on both sides of the ball, than last January. Their offense amassed 621 yards against the Bills Sunday, for example.

The Giants needed overtime to win the NFC title game last year, which safety Antrel Rolle called “one of the toughest games I’ve ever played, hands down.”

The stakes won’t be as high this week, but as the Giants got their opponent’s film in their hands Monday, they were gearing up for a long week of studying and preparation.

“They came down to the wire with us,” Rolle said. “I only expect them to get better. I think under Jim Harbaugh, I don’t think that team is going to be allowed to slack off, especially after the performance they put on last year.”